A #SaveWoT Campaign is underway (90k as of 01/06/25)

[Blueberry]

It seems the same folks who dropped the Renew WoT website & got 180k e-mails sent out have started another, following the cancellation of the show. People who signed it will get an update on the new campaign soon. 

 

https://savewot.com/take-action/

 

They have a few ways to take acction to get the attention of other streaming services it seems. I'm personally hopeful after seeing all the fan efforts on social media the last few days. 

 

Notes:

• 49k Signatures as of 28/05/25

• 62k Signatures as of 29/05/25

• 80k Signatures as of 30/05/25

• 90k Signatures as of 01/06/25

•165k Signatures as of 17/06/25

 

Edited June 17 by Blueberry
Updates

[Sabio]

Has Amazon officially announced anything yet?  I'm sure its cancelled but seems odd Amazon has been silent about it.

[Blueberry]

On 5/26/2025 at 1:33 AM, Sabio said:

Has Amazon officially announced anything yet?  I'm sure its cancelled but seems odd Amazon has been silent about it.

 

That's a good point, they do occasionally release a statement to the news or on their accounts when a show is coming to a close. Maybe they were hoping it would be a quiet cancellation? I don't think the Deadline article, who broke the story, had direct quotes from their reps either. 

Edited May 29 by Blueberry
Spelling

[Sabio]

3 hours ago, Blueberry said:

It seems the same folks who dropped the Renew WoT website & got 180k letters sent out have started abother, following the cancellation of the show. People who signed it will get an update on the new campaign soon. 

 

https://savewot.com/take-action/

 

They have a few ways to take acction to get the attention of other streaming services it seems. I'm personally hopeful after seeing all the fan efforts on social media the last few days. 

 

Here would be the issue.  If another service did pick it up do you start over with new writers etc?  Do you just pick up where it left off with the same people or have new people keep it going?  Amazon hasn't said anything so could they be testing the waters to see fan reaction before making an offer to Sony?

[Blueberry]

19 minutes ago, Sabio said:

Here would be the issue.  If another service did pick it up do you start over with new writers etc?  Do you just pick up where it left off with the same people or have new people keep it going?  Amazon hasn't said anything so could they be testing the waters to see fan reaction before making an offer to Sony?

I was wondering about this earlier myself. I wouldn't be surprised that if someone did pick it up, they drop Rafe as showrunner, given how many book fans are unhappy with him. But maybe they'd keep other writers, since season 3 was recieved well by those who were watching. Plus they'd know the ins and outs of the story, compared to a new team

 

One of the receivers of the #saveWoT campaign letters is Sony, and they've been blasted the last 3 days between the two campaigns since cancellation. Hopefully all this attention leads to more info coming out from them.

[Maximillion]

There is only one viable future for TV shows and movies of the ilk of WoT - the fans make them for their communities.

That is where we are headed and it will remove the corporate greed and desperate attempts to make content for as wide an audience as possible to make as much money as possible,  often ruining it.

Fan created content is at it's dawn and along the way there will be legal cases galore and massive advances in tech - to the point where one person can make what we just saw with WoT, but much better in terms of a reflection of the books,  for almost no cost, but  time and effort.

Amazon also cancelled Expanse, one of the best TV shows I have seen, with several books still left of the story.

Corporations do not care about fans - only profit and eyeballs. 

Given the 180k letters sent to support a renewal did not work, i doubt more to try to get a change of decision will do anything.

 

Edited May 26 by Maximillion

[HeavyHalfMoonBlade]

That is such simplistic concept it beggars belief. These forums are full of devoted fans arguing and discussing the story, there is no such thing as a consensus of fan opinion. It is one the grear misconceptions of the show that those that did not like it are some kind of monolith in their opinions. As soon as the discussion moves to what should have been done, it is clear there is no consensus. 

 

While a faithful one to one rendition of the books into animation would be cool, it is still going to be a huge investment. And the payoff of such an epic work is potentially equally huge. So the idea that money would not pay a role is silly. 

[Maximillion]

11 minutes ago, HeavyHalfMoonBlade said:

That is such simplistic concept it beggars belief. These forums are full of devoted fans arguing and discussing the story, there is no such thing as a consensus of fan opinion. It is one the grear misconceptions of the show that those that did not like it are some kind of monolith in their opinions. As soon as the discussion moves to what should have been done, it is clear there is no consensus. 

 

While a faithful one to one rendition of the books into animation would be cool, it is still going to be a huge investment. And the payoff of such an epic work is potentially equally huge. So the idea that money would not pay a role is silly. 

 

You are thinking like a corporation and stuck in the past/present when it comes to thinking about content.

Content creation is going to be entirely different in 10 years time.

Actors will not be needed, voicing of scripts will be indistinguishable from real human voices, music creation will be prompt based, no locations will be needed, no cameras, no crew.

We'll be in the realm of a few die hard fans of WoT being able to create a full episode in a day or two and release it online every week.  Hell, we could even have multiple versions with different fan groups making their own interpretations.  WoT discussions might be around which is best from several versions, not whether we'll get one. 

The problem will come legally - with corporations trying to stop content sharing on IP/rights protected content - but the content creation itself will be easy and cheap...and home based studios will be common place.

 

 

Edited May 26 by Maximillion

[Blueberry]

24 minutes ago, Maximillion said:

There is only one viable future for TV shows and movies of the ilk of WoT - the fans make them for their communities.

That is where we are headed and it will remove the corporate greed and desperate attempts to make content for as wide an audience as possible to make as much money as possible,  often ruining it.

Fan created content is at it's dawn and along the way there will be legal cases galore and massive advances in tech - to the point where one person can make what we just saw with WoT, but much better in terms of a reflection of the books,  for almost no cost, but  time and effort.

Amazon also cancelled Expanse, one of the best TV shows I have seen, with several books still left of the story.

Corporations do not care about fans - only profit and eyeballs. 

Given the 180k letters sent to support a renewal did not work, i doubt more to try to get a change of decision will do anything.

 

I do love fan creations, dragonmount being one of them. I wouldn't want anything AI, personally. I don't think it's necessarily fair to put a lot of free work on creatives that are fans either. Creatives are already sorely underpaid. Just look at the strikes... Many on the writing and costuming team are fans themselves too. I'd rather see people who are fans get paid to do the work of this epic tale.  

 

It's hard having to deal with art under corporations that value income above excellence. 

 

I should correct myself: the renewWoT campaign had 155k letters as of cancellation after a month of collecting. As of the cancellation it went from 155k to 180k in the span of 3ish days, while people still spammed amazon as they waited for the #SaveWot campaign. 

[Maximillion]

13 minutes ago, Blueberry said:

I do love fan creations, dragonmount being one of them. I wouldn't want anything AI, personally. I don't think it's necessarily fair to put a lot of free work on creatives that are fans either. Creatives are already sorely underpaid. Just look at the strikes... Many on the writing and costuming team are fans themselves too. I'd rather see people who are fans get paid to do the work of this epic tale.  

 

It's hard having to deal with art under corporations that value income above excellence. 

 

I should correct myself: the renewWoT campaign had 155k letters as of cancellation after a month of collecting. As of the cancellation it went from 155k to 180k in the span of 3ish days, while people still spammed amazon as they waited for the #SaveWot campaign. 

 

AI will be common place in productions, even for the big studios that remain in the future.

Creative types are going to need to adapt, as will most other professions.

There are many fans who do not want to be paid for what they would consider a hobby.

If we were 10 years in the future, I'd happily spend 10-15 hrs a week contributing to an episode and not worry about the money.

The truth is though that payment/reward will come - because millions of people will be consuming fan/amateur content generated outside the media companies we see today.

Realising books/novels as fully fledged visual media is probably one of the easier applications of AI - the authors have already effectively written all the content needs for prompts.

 

This guy says 2 years form now - but I think it's longer because of the time it will take for the required compute power to reach desktops - it's coming though.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/6Xa3t8spSYk

 

Think of media competition in the future not as decisions on WHAT gets made, but the best VERSION of what is made.

 

 

Edited May 26 by Maximillion

[HeavyHalfMoonBlade]

9 minutes ago, Maximillion said:

 

You are thinking like a corporation and stuck in the past/present when it comes to thinking about content.

Content creation is going to be entirely different in 10 years time.

Actors will not be needed, voicing of scripts will be indistinguishable from real human voices, music creation will be prompt based, no locations will be needed, no cameras, no crew.

We'll be in the realm of a few die hard fans of WoT being able to create a full episode in a day or two and release it online every week.  Hell, we could even have multiple versions with different fan groups making their own interpretations.  WoT discussions might be around which is best from several versions, not whether we'll get one. 

The problem will come legally - with corporations trying to stop content sharing on IP/rights protected content - but the content creation itself will be easy and cheap...and home based studios will be common place.

 

 

"Corporations" those cruel entities. 

 

And why would the Jordan Estate or whoever they have licensed the rights to allow all these fan projects? 

 

You also seem to be ignoring the multitude of lawsuits coming against AI engines for using material they have no right to. 

 

And I do not agree that some Utopia where all creative input is done by computer. No actors, no voice actors, no composers, indeed books can be written by AI too, so no future Robert Jordans. 

 

It simply doesnt make sense to say the only thing worth measuring a show against is faithfullness to the source material. You have the books for that, and WoT is always going to struggle when you have cut down the story, compensate for the internal dialogue, work against the common idea that the story is slow and boring amongst fantasy fans, etc. 

[Maximillion]

2 hours ago, HeavyHalfMoonBlade said:

"Corporations" those cruel entities. 

 

And why would the Jordan Estate or whoever they have licensed the rights to allow all these fan projects? 

 

You also seem to be ignoring the multitude of lawsuits coming against AI engines for using material they have no right to. 

 

And I do not agree that some Utopia where all creative input is done by computer. No actors, no voice actors, no composers, indeed books can be written by AI too, so no future Robert Jordans. 

 

It simply doesnt make sense to say the only thing worth measuring a show against is faithfullness to the source material. You have the books for that, and WoT is always going to struggle when you have cut down the story, compensate for the internal dialogue, work against the common idea that the story is slow and boring amongst fantasy fans, etc. 

 

.

Nobody said corporations were evil - it's just a fact that they make decisions on how much money they make.

 

I agree that there will be legal challenges - I said that

 

But they will not be able to hold back the tide of what is coming.

A commercial model will wash out - the smart rights holders will already be thinking about federated models and revenue shares.

 

I also did not say the only good content in the future will be faithfulness to the original content.  AI will also be used for brand new content - and for existing novels, multiple versions will be created, including ones that are absolutely faithful to the already written stories.  That is the point - you don't need to appeal to the masses to get as many viewers as possible.

 

This is NOW...not ready yet by any means but the acceleration over the next 10 years IS going to happen. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDlME4qvER8 

There is a whole industry bubbling up of AI movie companies, individuals,  pushing the envelope.  The winners will be producing content that will be totally convincing in 10 years and studio quality with almost none of the overheads.

 

This is also NOW - using Google's new Flow film making AI with Veo-3.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0md0S8u8XXE

 

Again - use your imagination a bit to think about what the level will be in 10 years!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 26 by Maximillion

[Sabio]

It just costs so much money now for streaming services to make a series.  WOT $250 million for rights, + $256 or so million for the first two seasons + season 3 cost.  Now put on what it has cost them for ROP + Reacher + Fallout.  We have no idea what Sony was asking for to continue WOT.  So streaming services depend on new subscriptions to help recover the money.  Look at the buzz Stranger Things. Squid Game, or Fallout had after their first seasons.  WOT simply never came close.  Viewing numbers might have been good but were people subscribing to Prime just to see WOT?

[Sabio]

8 hours ago, Blueberry said:

I was wondering about this earlier myself. I wouldn't be surprised that if someone did pick it up, they drop Rafe as showrunner, given how many book fans are unhappy with him. But maybe they'd keep other writers, since season 3 was recieved well by those who were watching. Plus they'd know the ins and outs of the story, compared to a new team

 

One of the receivers of the #saveWoT campaign letters is Sony, and they've been blasted the last 3 days between the two campaigns since cancellation. Hopefully all this attention leads to more info coming out from them.

This is probably small potatoes to Sony right now after their "if a country doesn't have PSN they can't play Sony's game" fiasco.

Sony is also facing backlash for promoting an all AI generated game, it was poor quality, but this seems to be becoming a more common thing with Sony. Pushing lower quality cheaper made AI stuff over the more expensive titles.  Going for short term profit over quality.  You can expect this to start happening with movies and Streaming series.  Will they ever be 100% all AI?  We can at least expect them to go more and more to AI in order to cut costs. 

Edited May 26 by Sabio

[expat]

15 hours ago, Blueberry said:

I was wondering about this earlier myself. I wouldn't be surprised that if someone did pick it up, they drop Rafe as showrunner, given how many book fans are unhappy with him. But maybe they'd keep other writers, since season 3 was recieved well by those who were watching. Plus they'd know the ins and outs of the story, compared to a new team

I make the following prediction:  If this happens and the show is picked up with a new showrunner, the same people complaining about Rafe will make the same complaints about the new showrunner because whoever it is will also deviate from the books.  They will have the same problems that Rafe has which required major changes. The books are unfilmable as written and require significant cutting and reimagining some of the material in order to make an interesting TV series.  
 

Whenever these discussions came up, I asked the question of what was more important, an interesting TV program or fidelity to the original work.  The posters who believe fidelity is the highest virtue won't be satisfied with any adaptation.  Before the haters descend, I understand that even those who thought that interesting TV was the highest priority might have disliked the choices Rafe made and concluded it wasn't good TV.   However, the arguments were mostly about lack of fidelity.

[DavyDrones]

There is nothing to be saved. 80 million per season is a lot of money. Who knows how much for season 3. Don't expect anything the next 20 years

Edited May 27 by DavyDrones

[Blueberry]

12 hours ago, DavyDrones said:

There is nothing to be saved. 80 million per season is a lot of money. Who knows how much for season 3. Don't expect anything the next 20 years

Fair enough, I'm still holding onto hope though. There's already 25k signatures in a day, seems it's starting out strong. 

[Sabio]

They won't get enough sadly, it would take a couple of million or so to get them to change their minds.  180,000 people saying save this show is small when the first two seasons alone cost around $256 million.  Not to mention the studio head that signed WOT was ousted and the new studio head has been talking about streamlining.  With Rafe saying he would need at least 6 seasons to really tell the story and having ROP for three more years I think really sealed WOT's fate.  They wouldn't want to pay for both WOT and ROP for three more seasons.

[Ralph]

https://winteriscoming.net/fan-petition-to-save-the-wheel-of-time-crosses-50-000-signatures-in-under-4-days

[Maximillion]

1 hour ago, Ralph said:

https://winteriscoming.net/fan-petition-to-save-the-wheel-of-time-crosses-50-000-signatures-in-under-4-days

 

That seems like a small number.

I remember the Expanse being saved by fan efforts - or presumably by fan efforts.

Didn't that get well over 100,000?

Edited May 29 by Maximillion

[Blueberry]

1 hour ago, Ralph said:

https://winteriscoming.net/fan-petition-to-save-the-wheel-of-time-crosses-50-000-signatures-in-under-4-days

 

It's 62k now 🙂 Nice to see how quickly this one is picking up signatures in a few days compared to the renewal campaign. If it doesn't end up working out, at least the fans can say they tried. 

[Sabio]

9 hours ago, Blueberry said:

 

It's 62k now 🙂 Nice to see how quickly this one is picking up signatures in a few days compared to the renewal campaign. If it doesn't end up working out, at least the fans can say they tried. 

Crowdfund it, I mean Star Citizen has raised over $800 million, sure 14 years later it's still not done.  But if fans tossed in a few million maybe,

Edited May 30 by Sabio

[Blueberry]

43 minutes ago, Sabio said:

Crowdfund it, I mean Star Citizen has raised over $800 million, sure 14 years later it's still not done.  But if fans tossed in a dew million maybe,

That could be worth submitting to the #savewot team. they seem really open to ideas, they usually respond to comments and emails 

[Blueberry]

Updates: 

• Fans have organized for an airplane to carry a banner across the sky tomorrow afternoon in California in their efforts to #SaveWoT

• They're also sending personalized physical letters to a suggested list of recipients from the #SaveWoT website. My favourite so far was a leather mail slip with an entire engraved map of Randland. 

 

 

[Mailman]

29 minutes ago, Blueberry said:

Updates: 

• Fans have organized for an airplane to carry a banner across the sky tomorrow afternoon in California in their efforts to #SaveWoT

• They're also sending personalized physical letters to a suggested list of recipients from the #SaveWoT website. My favourite so far was a leather mail slip with an entire engraved map of Randland. 

 

 

California might have something slightly more important going on atm.